The Timeline
The timeline of in-game events, from the beginning. Pre-Game / Backstory 7/7/17 - Newswire article about the US Government's "FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION AND DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES" seeking a social media company to develop a nationally scaled network with a description of criteria of the company that will win the bid. -- NEWSWIRE: Statement on the Need for a National Social Network 7/7/17 - Newswire article about the US Government's "FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION AND DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES" discussing failed and shut down social networks such as Max Peterson's failed network Profilter, which manipulated their algorithm to create bias towards the developers and later accessed users' webcams without their knowledge. Profilter was shut down by the US government. Kinect, another network for professional job recruitment, was shut down due to ties with numerous terrorist organizations and radical Islamic groups. 26 other companies were shut down since the beginning of the investigation into social media networks. "...until we have more robust state regulation, the narcissism of tech entrepreneurs will continue to be a damaging influence in the United States." -- NEWSWIRE: Report on State of Current Social Media Networks 8/24/17 - Newswire article about the US Government's "FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION AND DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES" describing the issues it wishes to solve by creating a national social media network as well as the plan to bail out the companies who would be negatively affected by their closure. - NEWSWIRE: Acknowledgement of National Social Network Concerns. Live Game, Week 1 - 10/2 - 10/7 10/2/2018 - The Connections Twitter posts introductory tweets to the upcoming userbase. "Our new website is live! Welcome to Connections™, your new social home online. http://connections.click ", "The transition from a private, limited social network to a public service accessible to all Americans, as mandated by the U.S. government has been a process for the history books. And today - it's official!", "'In the end we know it’ll be you, our users, who will make sure that we enter a new social age together.' -- Read the welcoming words of Connections™ Creator & CEO @NolanStauf now at http://connections.click ." along with a photo of Nolan in the savior pose in a Connections smiley face shirt, and finally "We can't wait to connect with all of you next week!" 10/2/2018 - Blog from Nolan Stauf welcoming new Ambassadors, introducing Taylor Hill, and mentioning that now that they've become government employees, that they had to get rid of their old social media accounts. Nolan leaves a voice clip (transcript) welcoming new users and sharing his excitement about the network opening in a week. -- Connections™ upsets competitors, wins government contract! 10/2/2018 - Tweet from Nolan linking to the above 10/3/2018 - Blog from Taylor Hill introducing herself as the guide to the new Connections website, also introducing Neoga and her daily mantras. Another blog post from Nolan Stauf, talking about how he's leaving the Bay area to go to the new Connections headquarters and introducing the Tamarind Martini Society chronicling his tamarind martinis over the years. 10/3/2018 - A "server outage" takes place on the Connections website. Minutes later, the site comes back online. 10/3/2018 - The Connections Twitter responds to the outage to numerous people's outage inquiries with two different copy/pasted messages - "Worry not - We're back up and running now! @NolanStauf's predictably unpredictable posts always seem throw a whirlwind of activity our way." and "As we continue add the final brush strokes to @NolanStauf's social masterpiece that is Connections™, you may experience some unusual site activities. But rest assured, the network is 100% safe, secure, and hacker-free!" 10/3/2018 - Blog post by Nolan where he talks about partying and the impending launch, as well as naysayers and his lack of digital footprint. Discusses a sizable government subsidy ensuring that no user information will be sold to Russia and how much he'll miss the Bay Area once he moves away, as well as introduces his love of tamarind martinis by shouting out to the Tamarind Martini Society Tumblr page where his fans chronicle his martini consumption. The images on the Tumblr have been described by content here - Tamarind Martini Society Tumblr Images. 10/3/2018 - Text message with a cryptic message and a link to a Mega-hosted video. The message reads "is this really what's best for all of us...? nolan seems to think so..." and the link leads to a video that must be unlocked by a decryption key which was discovered after the server outage at the bottom of the Connections homepage, below the blog listing. The decryption key is !TCAucrNv9hhuLNS_6i_1KHgZCG1B8sfXwtY0RrojONA.